


Their second Christmas that year

by Winxhelina



Category: Cabin Pressure
Genre: Angst, Cabin Pressure Week, Christmas, Christmas Presents, Gen, Happy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-17
Updated: 2017-03-17
Packaged: 2018-10-06 18:19:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10341543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winxhelina/pseuds/Winxhelina
Summary: Day 3 of Cabin Pressure Week. Prompt "Continuations"Set after Moloikai. Martin, Douglas and Arthur face their second Christmas together that year.





	

Martin groaned, burying his hands in his face. How could have he possibly forgotten about the International Date Line? How?!

Martin looked over to Douglas who was still rather upset about Arthur mulling his wine: “You _knew…”_

“Oh, get over it. You didn’t loose anything. You still made Arthur happy, I’m sure he’ll remember this Christmas until the rest of his life and more importantly – he won’t remember it as a day some idiot mulled his Petrus 05.”  
“I did. It was supposed to be _my wine to begin with._ I could have had one nice thing. For the first time in ages and I didn’t even get that. You don’t even drink,” Martin muttered, getting up: “You knew and didn’t – remind me. Because obviously I knew. It just slipped my mind!”

“Why are you so upset about this? You were the one who wanted to do this!”

“ _For Arthur!_ Because he was so sad about missing out on Christmas! You didn’t have to make me look stupid!”

“Oh, Martin,” Douglas breathed, feigning compassion: “No one is as good at making you look stupid as you are.”

 That was the last straw, Martin didn’t have to stand here and take Douglas’s insults. He could just go to his hotel room and sleep through this entire stupid holiday. The truth was that Martin had lied a bit when it came to not being that bothered by Christmas. He was in fact truly _bothered_ in the right sense of the word. The truth was Martin had been secretly glad to be working on Christmas Day. At least it gave him an excuse to escape from spending Christmas with family. They had all been disappointed, but Martin had felt relieved. He loved his family, deeply and he did feel a bit bad for not visiting his mother, but there were only so many self-made gifts that looked decent that you could make on Martin’s surreally tight budget. This was exactly the problem – Martin hardly had money to pay rent and put food on the table, presents, he did not have money for. Of course presents weren’t _supposed to matter,_ but they did. Everyone knew they did. If what you have didn’t matter then at least the fact that you gave _something_ did. Sometimes Martin didn’t have anything to give at all. He could hardly go to a family dinner with a pack of noodles for everyone. He had actually been desperate enough to get everyone MJN Air pens. It was pathetic.

 “Oh, Martin, darling, it’s fine. You don’t have to get us anything at all! We’ll just be happy to see you!” His mother had replied when he had indicated he was a bit broke. Of course she would say that. That’s what mothers said. But it wasn’t true, was it? Surely, a son who couldn’t afford a Christmas present for his mum, would be a disappointment.

Surrounded by such dark thoughts Martin had made his way to the hotel room and was undressing after way too many hours of flight time. He could get through this; have a nice long sleep and when he woke up, this blasted yearly reminder that he didn’t have money for gifts for his loved ones, would be over.

Martin’s head hit the pillow and Arthur’s words echoed in his mind _“I got an extra present for everyone.”_ Martin groaned. He didn’t have an extra present for Arthur. Maybe the little “party” they had held would be enough? There were rather a lot things. He sighed and tried to relax. Sure it would be okay. It was Arthur. Arthur was actually always happy with what he was given. It was one of the best things about Arthur. He was always so genuinely grateful. With that comforting thought Martin fell asleep quickly and deeply.

He stirred for a moment in the early morning, but did not wake, through his sleep he could hear Arthur and Douglas’s voices.

There was Arthur’s loud excited whispering: “This is so brilliant Douglas! You always have the best ideas! What are you getting, Skip?”

“Shush, you’re going to wake him up!” Douglas whispered back, a little quieter.

Martin hummed in his sleep and considered opening his eyes, idly wondering what the hell were they doing in his room. Before he had a chance to go through with his plan however he fell back asleep.

When Martin woke up the next day, the sun was shining into the room, making it unbearably hot. Really? Couldn’t they at least get a hotel with proper air conditioning? It was then when Martin noticed the present on his bed. He remembered their voices in his room. It hadn’t been a dream then. He felt both touched and a little bit devastated. Now he needed to get presents for both of them. Not that he didn’t _want to,_ but what could it be? Arthur he might be able to handle, but Douglas was more tricky. Martin opened the carefully wrapped presents and laughed happily. There was a very bright sparkly notebook with colourful planes all over. It had Arthur written all over it, looking almost as festive as their company website did. It took some of the pressure off him really, it wasn’t anything too fancy or expensive. Just – sweet and thoughtful.

Martin opened the notebook and read what it said on the cover inside.

_Merry Christmas, Skip!_

_From Arthur, ~~Mum,~~ Carolyn and Douglas. _

There were drawings of Christmas trees and Santa hats all over. Martin thought it was incredibly sweet how Arthur had included all of their names even through it was clearly just his idea. Martin was surprised to find that when he turned the page he found another inscription written in entirely different handwriting.

_The person in possession of this notebook is entitled to the first crack at the cheese tray on all flights where the destination begins with the letters A-M._

That was rather a huge deal. Martin thought Douglas was likely to try and wiggle his way out of this agreement. He’d have to start carrying the notebook with him on all flights, surely. Still, this was an incredibly uplifting morning and made Martin believe he could probably think of something for his family if he just thought out of the box.

He checked his phone for the time and realized he had a text from Douglas.

_Get dressed you merry gentleman and come down to the beach. Carolyn is buying us drinks on the company card, you don’t want to miss this._

Maybe two Christmases a year wasn’t such a bad thing, Martin thought merrily and got dressed.

**Author's Note:**

> I overdid it with the merry gentlemen, didn't I? Thanks for reading!


End file.
